When it comes to "white collar" crime, finance directors, chief executives and other senior management are far more likely to be involved in fraud – such as the mis-statement of financial results, theft and expense abuse – than junior staff. The economic downturn has also made it a lot easier to commit fraud, according to research by KPMG, which warned that scams go undetected for longer.

The consultancy's global analysis of fraud trends suggests that the typical fraudster is male, aged 36 to 45, holds a senior job in finance, has worked for his company for more than a decade and acts in collusion with a partner. What should send alarm bells ringing across companies is a jump in the number of cases involving the exploitation of weak internal controls – up to 74% in 2011 from 49% in 2007.

The recession and continued difficult economic climate may be partially to blame, according to the report. Tighter budgets are forcing some companies to cut costs in risk management and control, giving fraudsters more opportunities to falsify accounts or siphon off funds. But personal greed remains the prime motivation for fraud, followed by pressure to reach tough profit and budget targets.

"Organisations should take some of the blame," wrote Phillip Ostwalt, Richard Powell and Mark Leishman, the authors of the KPMG report. "For them, it is time to consider how they contribute to fraud when failing to detect or respond to lapses or gaps in controls, or by setting overly onerous targets... There tends to be less fraud in companies that make intolerance of fraud part of the corporate culture and which set realistic and achievable targets for employees."

In 2007, nearly half of all fraudsters worked in senior management. While this has fallen to 35%, board level perpetrators increased from 11% to 18% between 2007 and 2011.

Most fraudsters work in their company's finance department (32%), where access to corporate assets, financial reporting and credit lines offers significant temptation and opportunity to commit and conceal acts of fraud. After finance, fraudsters are most likely to work in the chief executive's or managing director's office (26%, up from 11% in 2007) or in operations and sales (25%).

In other recent cases, Jurgen Whitehouse, IT services boss at Ofcom, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for defrauding the telecoms regulator out of more than £500,000, while a Sainsbury's IT manager who stole millions of Nectar points after finding a loophole in the system was jailed for 20 months. And Barry Cushley, a former director of Chapelgate Health Care, faces a fraud investigation after being accused of claiming council money for a nursing home resident who had been dead for two years.

While men were found to be more likely to become fraudsters (87%) by the KPMG researchers, women in the Americas (22%) and Asia Pacific (23%) are almost three times more likely to be involved in fraud than women in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (8%). However, this might be due to the relatively few numbers of women in senior positions in "old Europe" and Africa.

Fraud now takes longer to detect – up from an average 2.9 years from inception to detection in 2007, to 3.4 years in the 2011 analysis. In Asia, fraud goes on for longest - an average of five years - before being uncovered and 16% of frauds go undetected for 10 years or more. This is possibly because employees in Asia tend not to challenge their superiors or rock the boat as much as in western Europe or north America, where just 3% of fraud goes undetected for 10 years or more, says KPMG..

The research is based on 348 investigations conducted by KPMG member firms in 69 countries, including high-profile reported cases but mostly investigations that were not publicised.

One in seven frauds (13%) are now discovered by chance, up from 8% in 2007. Formal whistleblower reports account for only a tenth of fraud detections, compared with a quarter in 2007, while anonymous tip-offs led to the uncovering of 14% of frauds this year. A further 8% came to light after complaints by customers or suppliers and another 6% were revealed in response to issues raised by regulators, banks, tax authorities, rivals or investors.